Nuggets & NBA

For losing Nuggets, injuries and no playoff berth are sore subjects

The Nuggets' Kenneth Faried (35) reaches for the ball between San Antonio's Tony Parker (9) and Tiago Splitter on Wednesday. (Eric Gay, The Associated Press)

Their streak of playoff appearances has ended at 10. Even for a Nuggets franchise that acknowledged fewer regular-season wins would be an acceptable trade-off for becoming more suited for the tightened-up postseason, it represents a major — and even surprising — regression in the wake of a 57-25 record a season ago. A season that ended in a first-round playoff loss to Golden State.

"It's certainly been a disappointment," first-year general manager Tim Connelly said Thursday after practice. "We had big goals when we got here. It's not hard to kind of point to some things that led to that disappointment, and it's unfortunate that we haven't seen the team we thought we were going to have."

Several players were lost to injury, including forward Danilo Gallinari (knee) for the entire season.

"When you sit down in October, you expect a healthy Gallo returning, we didn't know JaVale (McGee) was going to be hurt," Connelly said. He also noted that Nate Robinson (Jan. 29) and J.J. Hickson (March 21) also had suffered season-ending knee injuries.

"It's kind of when it rains, it pours," Connelly said. "The result has been a disappointment, but I don't think the process has been a disappointment."

He pointed to the work of first-year Denver coach Brian Shaw as a positive.

"Brian's fantastic and he's done a (heck) of a job under difficult circumstances, and I think we've seen some guys grow," Connelly said. "But again, we didn't come here to miss the playoffs. So it would be disingenuous for me to say it wasn't a disappointment."

The Nuggets are 32-40 with 10 games remaining heading into a home game against San Antonio on Friday.

The Nuggets acquired forward Jan Vesely and guard Aaron Brooks at the NBA trading deadline, while unloading Andre Miller, and the thinking was the new players were more coveted for their expiring contracts than what they could actually contribute on the court. But Brooks has played well of late, and Vesely is expected to be back against the Spurs after missing two games because of bruised ribs. Connelly was insistent that the Nuggets haven't ruled out trying to re-sign either player.

"Aaron's been fantastic," Connelly said. "We were really fortunate that he showed some faith in us by waiving that no-trade clause. I think with Jan, that last game (against Washington on Sunday) was the best game he has played for us. Unfortunately, he went down with an injury. Both those guys were brought here to help us get through the season, but also to evaluate them for next season as well."

Shaw has emphasized that the stretch run in essence is the beginning of next season's training camp.

"With Brian, as a first-year coach, everything is new," Connelly said. "With so many new faces, and then injuries on top of that, it's made it such a hard year, especially on Brian, even with having so few bodies to practice.

"I think it's a really smart approach on Brian's part to maximize the rest of the season and try to build off it. Every time you have a chance to have guys in the gym, you have a chance to improve."

SAN ANTONIO AT DENVER 7 p.m. ALT; 950 AM

Spotlight on Boris Diaw: Now, don't take this mention here of the backup forward as any suspicion that Tim Duncan might not play much, or at all, Friday night — especially considering that San Antonio has a Saturday night home game. OK, if you want to take it that way, go ahead.

NOTEBOOK

Spurs: San Antonio's 108-103 victory at home over the Nuggets on Wednesday was the team's 15th straight. ... San Antonio hasn't lost since falling 106-85 at Phoenix on Feb. 21.

Nuggets: Timofey Mozgov was ill and missed practice Thursday. His status for Friday's game is up in the air. ... Jan Vesely, however, was on the practice floor after missing two games because of bruised ribs. Coach Brian Shaw said he expected Vesely to be available against the Spurs. ... Shaw said he was heartened by the Nuggets' effort to come back from a huge deficit against the Spurs on the road Wednesday to make it close in the fourth quarter. "All season long, when I was harping on effort and just going out and competing, that's all I want," Shaw said. "I've always said I can live with us taking losses if we go out and compete. And if the team is just better than us on that given night and they beat us, OK, as long as we compete, and we're doing that now on a consistent basis."

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